All of my recipes here will be simple and straightforward. I do not intend to write you an essay on how to cook. I want you to use your senses and pay attention while you cook. The main factors to be attentive to are: a heat source, sounds, smell, sight, feel, and taste. Cook with care; if you cook with care your dishes can be phenomenal, amazing, fantastic, and consistently great, the moment at any point while cooking you have any slight bit of negligence or laziness- it can ruin your dish or make it far from what was expected. By all means, don’t be hard on yourself and think you aren't good at cooking. Maybe you aren't “good” yet but that's no big deal. Just keep getting better because it is a great skill to have, it's fun and social.
Taste: Careful while tasting, especially with metal, nobody likes a burned tongue. Things to look for would be salt content, enough spices, is it acidic or sweet? Salt brings everything together so if it tastes somewhat dull then likely you need salt and remember this is a personal preference but you can always add it so try not to go overboard early. It is good to taste through each stage of the cooking process so you have the best idea of what your final product will be like. If you have multiple components like sauces or toppings to be added to your dish then you want to taste each one and imagine what it will be like when all of them come together.
Feel: Is a burger or steak cooked through when still soft, or more firm? Does poultry ask the same way or have different firmness when cooked through?
Sight: Commonly browning of food, also bubbling or melting, maybe shrinking. When baking something in a clear dish, can you see bubbling around the edges? This gives an idea of how hot something is and that it is cooking, the center may not have reached that point yet.
Smell: One of the most important tools you have. When cooking anything this is your mark to know when to go to the next step or to cease cooking. When starting with spices in oil be careful because they go quick, use your sense of smell, once it's good it's good, and don't go too far, it will not get THAT much better by cooking further.
Sounds: Slow or fast and loud. If you have left the room this is one of your senses that can save you when you hear your stovetop simmering loudly, GO get it!
Heat Source: How hot is the burner on the stove, does your oven heat to what it actually says, know the hot spots on your bbq by hovering your hand or simply noticing that things tend to cook hotter toward the back of the bbq if the lid is closed a bbq becomes an oven and cooks the topside of food as well so if you've already flipped then we do not want to overcook the topside.